Women aim to move millions

January 11, 2008

A pair of philanthropic sisters and a major women's funding organization are joining forces to inspire gifts of $1 million or more to support groups serving women and girls.

The Women Moving Millions effort was launched by the Women's Funding Network along with Ambassador Swanee Hunt, the founding director of the Women and Public Policy program at Harvard's Kennedy School, and her sister Helen LaKelly Hunt, founder of the Sister Fund.

To date the effort has raised $70 million of the $150 million it aims to raise by April of 2009.

If the effort is successful, the founders say, the assets of women's foundations around the world will exceed $1 billion.

"As women's control of wealth in the U.S. continues to rise, now is the time to raise the bar on women's philanthropy and direct greater resources to women and girls," LaKelly Hunt says in a statement.

Donations can be made to one or a combination of the 124 women's foundations comprising the Women's Funding Network, or to the network itself.

More than eight in 10 grant dollars from women's funds assist women and girls in poverty around the world, with a particular focus on economic justice, gender-based violence, health, education, empowerment, human rights and reproductive rights.

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